At the latest since the great success of his book At the Edge of the
World(Kehrer 2015), the French photographer Alain Laboile is well known
around the world among connoisseurs of black-and-white photography. In
his new photobook, Summer of the Fawn, he once again provides insight
into the free and nearly fairytale-like life of his family in a small
village in the southwest of France. Far away from social constraints,
school stress, Facebook & Co., it always seems to be summer here, and
his six children frolic barefoot in an enchanted garden, in which one
encounters cats, grass snakes, and even a fawn. Nevertheless, rules do
indeed exist, even in fairytales - we thus also see how the children are
homeschooled: sensibly and lovingly, and often outdoors. Summer of the
Fawn is a beautiful, vivacious, and at the same time melancholic ode to
childhood and life.